Quest University

Located in Squamish in the heart of Sea-to-Sky Country, this university campus consists of three primary academic and student commons buildings, which are arranged to frame a series of view corridors and landscaped public spaces. The campus includes a three-storey library, four-storey academic and laboratory building, and a two-storey student services building housing a theatre, kitchen, and dining hall all located over underground parking. The campus also includes a recreation centre with a collegiate size gymnasium, racket courts, weight and exercise rooms, change rooms, and a campus pub.

The campus was designed and delivered under a construction management model with sequential structural tendering ensuring schedule, budget, and design goals were met. Each structure shares common features, including cast-in-place radiant concrete floor slabs, accented with featured structural elements. The academic building is integrated into a sloping site to limit blasting of bedrock and is bisected to allow the topography to flow through a central courtyard. The library incorporates extensive timber elements including glulam beams and columns accompanied by acoustic wood panelling. Glulam is again featured in the dining hall, where sweeping locally-harvested Douglas fir beams create a dramatic roof structure supported by branching steel tree columns. Exterior canopies and shading devices are created with a kit of parts approach and continue the timber design language providing visual continuity across the campus.

By carefully considering its surrounding landscape during the buildings’ construction and design phases, the Quest University campus represents a stunning home in nature where students and staff can thrive.